P.J. O'Rourke
The Jeep is a manly device. And a womanly device. An American device. It’s a fitting instrument to transport the free people of a free nation with the respect to which we are entitled and the dignity that we deserve. Okay, we’re a little crazy to have a Jeep for a daily driver. But if we go off our meds, we might wind up in a Prius

A winch does not replace any kind of locker. Post this in a tech section, not GD.

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Quote:

P.J. O'Rourke
The Jeep is a manly device. And a womanly device. An American device. It’s a fitting instrument to transport the free people of a free nation with the respect to which we are entitled and the dignity that we deserve. Okay, we’re a little crazy to have a Jeep for a daily driver. But if we go off our meds, we might wind up in a Prius

You should post this in a tech section and fill out your profile info so we know more about your Jeep, the answer to this question depends largely on what other kind of stuff you have.

But, since no one else seems to want to help you I guess I will.

If you have stock axles (dana 30 front, dana 35 rear), I wouldn't waste my money on expensive lockers, at least not on the rear. Ideally you'd want lockers front and rear, with axles strong enough to handle them (which the d35 is not, anyone that says otherwise is just making themselves feel better because they still have one, and/or wasted money upgrading it), and a reliable winch.

If I were in your position, heres what I would, and have done. Put an auto locker that just replaces the spider gears in the front axle. Brands like powertrax and aussie are both good. Then get a warn M8000, wait until you find them on sale, I payed $370 for mine. People might say that the chinese winches such as smittybilt and mile marker are just as good, but in my experience they are not. I've had problems with my mile marker, and have seen enough smittybilts fail to the point where someone couldn't give me one for free to put on the front of my Jeep. Doing all this will cost you a little under $700.

Then once you have money, put a stronger rear axle in (the ford 8.8 is a cheap and fairly easy swap), then put a locker in it. Your budget and use will be the deciding factor in what you put in it. If it's a going to just be something for trails, then a detroit, or if that isn't in your budget, another auto locker would be good. If you plan on driving it a lot on the street, you'll be happier with a selectable locker, such as an ARB or an OX locker. Neither are cheap unless you can find them on sale, which is usually rare.

I k9now it doesnt i was just thinkin i can get lockers to not get stuck in the trail or go cheaper and get a winch for if i do get stuck, but ok.

Lockers don't keep you from getting stuck, they just allow you to get stuck worse farther down the trail.

I think recovery and protection (armor) should be higher on the list than lockers. Even if you wheel with buddies that can get you out I would still rather have a winch.

As far as lockers I have ARBs and I am very happy with them and am glad I have selectable lockers. I would go ARB because they have been around longer and have a very good reputation.

If you have a D35 rear replacing it should be high on the list also, the D30in front is fine with 33s and smaller. When I ran 35s on my Dana 30 it wentthrough hubs and u joints faster than I would have liked, but nothing brokethey just wore faster. I went back to 33s after running 35s.

As stated before a locker still lets you get stuck, but just in worse situations in even more remote areas with even less chances of finding capable help for recovery, basically means you'll have a long walk back when you do inevitably get stuck. They also let you get in to bad situations, where a normal open diff would have lost traction and stopped you, a locker will let you keep going until you're either upside down or really, really stuck.

Winches let you self recover and more times than not help recover other vehicles, and if you can get over something chances are you can winch your way up and out of it, it'll just take an half an hour.

I say throw an auto locker up front and get a cheap winch, best of both worlds for about the same price of one ARB locker.

However one thing you can't buy that's worth more than the most expensive stuff is wheeling with a group and experience, never wheel alone, know your capabilities, and most importantly, know when to give up.

[QUOTE=mrblaine;12000822]
How about this, if you had the Jeep Spirit, you wouldn't abuse the rest of us trying to enjoy a nice day out wheeling by bringing your brokeass broken down junkyard crap out to play where it can't handle it?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=JeepForum123;13578398]you all have nice rigs, stop being f****** a**holes.[/QUOTE]